Product category:
Dispensing, filling and weighing systems
News Release from: Procon Engineering | Subject: Inflo
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 10 June 2005
Belt weighers perform at Rotterdam
terminal
Twenty Inflo belt weighers supplied by UK-based Procon Engineering are continuing to provide accurate and trouble-free weighing in the tough working environment at the EMO terminal at Rotterdam.
Twenty Inflo belt weighers supplied by UK-based Procon Engineering are continuing to provide accurate and trouble-free weighing on equipment operating in the tough working environment at the EMO terminal at Rotterdam The weighers are fitted to stacker reclaimers and in belts on several locations at the terminal
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 27 Feb 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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EMO bv (Europees Massagoed-Overslagbedrijf) has been located on the Maasvlakte Rotterdam since 1973 and it is the largest dry bulk terminal in Europe, specialising in the unloading and storage of iron ore and coal from around the world.
Offering direct access to the North Sea at a draught of 23 metres, EMO can handle panamax size ships and the largest dry bulk carriers.
The company, which operates 24 hours-a-day, 360 days-a-year, unloading about 35 million tonnes of raw materials annually, plays a vital role in the supply chain of iron ore and coal needed for the European steel and power generation industries.
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Procon Engineering has a longstanding relationship with EMO, stretching back 25 years and the weighing equipment has proved reliabile with long term accuracy.
EMO operates five Krupp-PWH stacker-reclaimers fitted with Inflo weighers rated up to 7000 tonnes per hour (tph), four PHB/PWH/MAN ship unloaders and three barge loaders.
EMO's project assistant, Ab van Doorn, is satisfied with the Procon equipment and as he explained: "The weighers operate in one of the most arduous environments imaginable and they have to withstand extremes of weather with little time for maintenance.
Although the weighers are a relatively small part of the giant equipment working at the terminal, their importance cannot be underestimated.
Any downtime is costly and very inconvenient and, as a result, reliability is vitally important." The Inflo Resometric belt weighers have proved to be far more reliable than conventional load cell based units and are ideal for such arduous applications, said Procon.
The weighers provide a combination of features that ensures the key factors influencing belt scale performance are maintained in service over long periods of time.
At the heart of the scale is the digital resometric force transducer or resonator, which provides repeatable measurement performance for extended periods.
The resonator has no moving parts and is pre-loaded to a standard level by the applied force from the weigh carriage.
As the force varies with the load passing over the carriage rollers, the resonant frequency changes in proportion to applied load.
That change in frequency is processed by the electronics and combined with the belt travel speed to provide an accurate weight reading per unit time, added the company.
Lateral chains are fitted between the weigh carriage and the rigid conveyor to prevent any unwanted side forces being introduced through factors such as poor belt tracking or material asymmetry.
As a result, once the weigh carriage is installed and aligned, it only sees the vertical forces produced by the material being weighed.
Periodic calibration checks can be carried out by utilising the built-in roll-over calibration weights fitted across the weigh carriage.
They have a cam at each end and under normal operating conditions sit free of the weigh carriage on the outside frame.
When calibration is carried out, they are rotated round so that the weight rests on the live weigh carriage.
According to Procon, unlike fixed inclination weighing applications, the belt weighers on the stacker reclaimers are subjected to constantly changing angles of operation.
That would normally introduce cosine weighing errors, due to the apparent change in the suspended weigh carriage mass.
To automatically compensate for the changing angles of operation, the weighers are fitted with Inflo's proprietary Astatic Mass Zero Compensation system.
The belt weighers are checked for calibration on a regular basis against two weights and measures approved Inflo belt weighers at permanent locations on site and also a Pfister train loading scale.
During the last calibration in 2004, correlation of better than 0.5 per cent overall was recorded, showing how stable the weighers are in their harsh environment, said Procon.
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